Abstract
The Cento of Proba contains many elements of the epic genre, one of the most pronounced being the use of direct speech. There are twenty instances of direct speech ranging from one incomplete verse (line 213) to 28 verses (the paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount, lines 469-496).
Proba did not adopt their structure from her Biblical model (unlike Juvencus, for instance), but opted for free creation instead. The analyses presented in this study demonstrate that the author reduced the extent of direct speech, concatenated many short units into larger utterances, simplified dialogues (reducing the number of speakers and lines), avoided repeating what had already been said, but also increased the number of arguments in persuasive speeches (without necessarily increasing their extent).
Ever since Richard Heinze's assertions published in 1903, all these elements have been regarded not as general markers of direct speech in epic, but more specifically as signs of the Virgilian style.